Blow molding articles having balanced properties



Aug. 24, 19% F. J. ZAVASNIK BLOW MOLDING ARTICLES HAVING BALANCED PROPERTIES .Filed Jan. 10, 1963 HEATING MEDIUM FIG. 2

FIG. 4

FIG. 3

INVENTOR. F J Z AVAS N l K FIG. 5

A TTORNE V8 U i e S ates Patent This invention relates to forming molded plasticnara ticles by blow molding. In another aspect itfrelates to a method of fabricating a blown container having sub stantially uniform wall thickness and balanced strength properties.

The mechanical process known as blow molding by which hollow objects are produced by ex-tendinga quantity of moldable material into a hollow mold and then inflating said material against the mold surface where it freezes into a shape stable atnormal atmospheric temperatures is a highly usefulone in. the plastic molding industry. f

Prior art methods have oftenbeen plagued by non uniform parison blowing, uneven wall thickness, and poor biaxialorientation of the formediarticle; One solution that hasbeen oifered to obtainwallnniiformity when blowing a parison into a formedcontainer is that the parison be axially stretched as the blowing pressure is introduced, also resulting in a biaxially oriente dstrengthened blown container. Unfortunately, adoptionof this principle of operation of simultaneous axial expansion of the parison with the circumferential expansion produced by the introduction of blowing:fluidnecessitates the use comparatively short period oftime in the range of 10 to 30 seconds; then the thus unevenly heated parison is completely withdrawn from saidmedium, and subjected to blowing in amold cavityas described above. Alternatively, radiant'heaters can be used to heat the portions of the parison to dissimilar temperatures.

The fact that blown containers can be biaxially oriented without axial stretching is important, not only because of the simplification of the apparatus involved, but also because'it reduces the mold thermal conditioning time required, by. allowing the use of longer'parisons having thinner walls for the production of a given container.

The process of the present invention is applicable to substantially all of the thermoplastic normally solid poly mersand resins, such as thepolyolefins, and especially polypropylene, ranging in density between, 0.90 and 0.92

of complex and relatively expensive molds; Annealing of conventionally blown bottles has also been resorted to in order to improve tensile modulus, but this also has its drawbacks. A 1 i l I Accordingly, it. is an objectof this invention to pro vide means for fabricating a blown container having substantially uniform wall thickness. 3

It is another object to provide a method for using conventional molds to produce a stiifer and stronger blown container resulting from good biaxial orientation. 7

It is still another obiecttoprovide' a simplified and economical construction for a blown container having balanced properties. T

truding molten material in the form of a parison, heating the lower portion of said parison to a first and higher Various modifications and aspects of the invention will. f become apparent to those skilled inthe =artwithout departing from the spirit and scope of thisinvention;

Broadly, the invention comprises conventionally exparisonin the mold when blowing a and for articles of good durability. In general, any solid polymer =of,an aliphatic mono-l-olefin can be used within the scope of this invention. Examples of such starting materials include polymers and copolymers', ofjaliphatic heXene-l, octene-l, and thelike, and blends of these polymers and copolymers. 'Polymers'of aliphatic monol-olefins having a maximum of' 8 carbon atoms per molecule and no branching n'earerthe doublesbo'nd than the fourth position provide thermoplastic containers'having particularly desirable properties, such as thermal insulation. Homopolymers and copolymers, as well as mixtures of homopolymers and copolymers are suitable polymeric materialsfor the articles of the invention. Other thermoplastics which are useful in the practice of this inventioninclude polystyreneand polystyrene containing polymers, polyamides, fluorocarbon polymers, acrylic and acetal polymers. j 1 t" i A more complete understanding of the invention may be had by reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein like partsz have been designated with like reference numerals, of which 7 'FIGURE 1 is a view, shown partially in section, of a parison positioned in a heating medium;

FIGURE 2 illustrates the parison partially withdrawn from the heating medium;

FIGURE 3 illustrates the heated parison positioned in a mold;

7 FIGURE 4 illustrates the initial expansion 7 of the pressure is introduced;

FIGURE 5 illustrates the parison fully expanded into the mold.

temperature; heatingthe upper portion of said paris'onij to a second and lower temperature; then placingtheresulting unevenly heated parison intermediate the opff posing cavities of a mold, while centering the lowerjendof said. parison therebetween; and expanding the centered parisonby applying fluid under pressure to the interior thereof, to fill and freeze the parisonintofthef opposing cavities of the mold, thereby providing a blown container having substantially uniform wall thickness, and

good biaxial orientation.

A temperature differential between the upper and'lowerm portions of the thermally conditioned parison is neces sary to the practice of this invention, which isgenerallyf in the range of 2 to 10 F.

immersed in a heated medium maintained'ata temperature in the rangeof 220 F.jto 340 F. for a controlled: period of time in the range of 5 to 30 minutes; theheated parison is partially withdrawn from the medium, while leaving the lower end immersed for an additional but a as. In a preferred embodiment, the formed parisonfis.

Referring now to the drawing in detail and to FIG- URE l in particular, there is shown a tank 1 which contains a heating medium 2. This heating medium can be ethylene glycol. A thermoplastic parison 6 which is closed at the lower end is submerged in the heating medium by means of a suitable clamp 3. The parison is so positioned for a preselected period of time, as prev1ously described. The parison is then partially withdrawn from the heating medium, as illustrated in FIG- URE 2. The parison is retained in the second position for a shorter period of time, as previously described.

' The parison is then promptly removed from the heatmg' bath and is inserted through an opening 7.into a cavity 8 which is formed by mold halves 9 and 1-1. The

lower end 12' of the parison centers on the bottom of the mold. This is illustrated in FIGURE 3. The parison is then expanded by applying fluid under pressure through a passage 12 formedin a blowhead 13. Uponpapplica- 'tion of blowing pressure, the outward movement of the parison is initiated at the hotter and lower end, which is also-the point where maximum support for the seated parison is found. This support prevents excessive move- Patented Aug. 24,1965

conditions, uniformity of wall thickness and degree of strengthening of blown plastic containers by blowing of polyolefin parisons into a large diameter glass pipe.

EXAMPLE I Pelleted commercial polypropylene was delivered to the hopper of a commercial extruder, wherein it was reduced to a molten state. The polymer was extruded as a tubing of 2%" CD. with a 0.140" Wall thickness. The tubing was severed in lengths of about 6 inches to form several parisons, one for the determination of parison average tensile yield point, and six more for blowing into bottles according to the method of this invention, under varying operating conditions.

Firstly, 8 specimens were cut from one of the cooled parisons, all 2" long x 0.25 wide in dimension. A conventional tensile tester was employed with a stretch rate of 20 per minute. The direction of the specimen cut, the measured thickness of each, the resulting elongation and tensile yield point for the 8 samples are given in Table I.

Average tensile yield pont for the 8 specimens was about 3960 p.s.i. All the parison specimens were observed to stretch by localized necking with a then unstable neck.

Six polypropylene parisons were each totally immersed in a heated treating bath containing triethylene glycol as heating medium maintained at 320 F. 12 for about 15 minutes. The parisons were partially withdrawn with their lower half being subjected to an extra immersion period averaging 15 seconds. The blowing pressure was varied, as indicated in Table II for the several parisons. Most of the conditioned parisons blow uniformly as visually observed, and subsequently confirmed by measurement of thickness of six specimens taken from each blown sample. The operating conditions and observed results are set forth in Table II.

As to sample 4 the low initial blow pressure of 5 p.s.i. resulted in failure to blow. Immersion of parison in the bath for 5 additional minutes still resulted in failure to blow at 10 p.s.i. Reheating again and use of 25 p.s.i. finally resulted in blowing. It appears that for a given type of parison and conditioning temperature that the optimum blow pressure can easily be determined.

The average ultimate tensile point for all the specimens cut from the blown parison was 6700 p.s.i., for a strength increase obtained by blowing of 70 percent. Moreover, all the specimens stretched uniformly with a stable neck Table I on the tensile puller.

I Since the effective parison length was approximately Sample Direction Thiclriless, Elongation, Tensile yield 4 /2" and 3" Of this length formed the tOp and bottom mls percent of the blown sample, 1 /2 of the tube was biaxially 1 140 20 3,915 oriented. .This became apparent when a 3 length cir- 24 3,700 cumferential strip was cut from the center of the blown 290 4,335 677.5 4,015 sample, measured and tensile strengths obtained. The :2: 332 40 thickness obtained (approximately 25 mils) and the equal 5 16% 3,800 strengths in both directions could only be btamed by do 143 232 4,140 equal stretching of this portion of the parison (stretch ratio 2:1).

Table ll.--Oriented bottle blowing Blown Tensile Initial Initial Bath Time Blow Final Sample Specifitube, tube wall temperature in bath pressure tube, N0. cation O.D. thickness F.) (mins.) (p.s.i.) 0.D. No. (in.) (in) (111.)

See footnotes at end' of table.

6 Table II-Continued Tensile I Specimen Specimen Tensile Theoretical Blown Specifica- Direction of width thickness strength, stretch Sample N 0. tion N 0. sample out (in) (in.) ultimate based on (p.s.i.) thickness 0. 020 6,800 2. 24 0. 023 6, 700 2. 09 0. 020 6, 600 2. 24 0. 022 7, 200 2. 2O 0. 022 6, 600 2. 0.022 7,000 2. 20 0. 024 6, 600 2. 04 0. 024 6, 700 2. 04 0.024 6, 600 2. 04 0. 022 6, 700 2. 20 0. 022 7,000 2. 20 0.023 6, 700 2. 09 0.023 7, 000 2. 09 0.023 6, 900 2. 09 0.022 7, 000 2. 20 0. 024 6, 700 2. 04 0. 020 6, 700 2. 24 0. 018 8, 700 2. 0. 019 7, 600 2. 29 0.021 7, 500 2. 18 0.022 7, 100 2. 20 0.023 6, 900 2. O9 0. 023 6, 500 2. 09 0. 018 8, 800 2. 35 0.016 7, 600 2. 0.016 10, 000 2. 50 0. 017 7, 400 2. 43 0.022 7,300 2. 20 0. 018 7, 400 2. 35 Machine 0. 018 8, 900 2. 35

Blown Tensile Percent Comments-Tensile puller rate, Sample Spec1ficaelongation Break 20 ins/min.

No. tion No.

15 secs. extra immersion for bottom half of the tube. Sample blew uniformly.

2 15 secs. extra immersion for bottom half of the tube.

3 15 secs. extra immersion for bottom half of the tube. Tube did not blow. Reheated for another 5 mins. Did not blow with 10 p.s.i. pressure. Reheated again. Did not blow. Applied 25 p.s.i. pressure to blow.

4 15 secs. extra immersion for bottom half of the tube.

5 15 secs. extra immersion for bottom half of the tube.

Reasonable variation and modification are possible (d) introducing fluid under pressure into the parison within the scope of the foregoing disclosure, the drawings, to expand same into engagement with the mold. and the appended claims to the invention. 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the parison is I claim: formed of polypropylene, the temperature of the heating 1. The method of fabricating a hollow container commedium is in the range of 220 to 340 F., the first prising: mentioned time is in the range of 5 to 30 minutes, and

(a) immersing a hollow parison of thermoplastic resin the second mentioned time is in the range of 10 to 30 of substantially uniform wall thickness and closed 0 seconds. at one end into a liquid heated medium for a predetermined period of time; References Cited by the Examiner (b) partially withdrawing said parison from the medium so that the region of the parison adjacent the UNITED STATES PATENTS closed end thereof remains submerged, and retaining the parison in the thus partially Withdrawn posig tion for a second period of time shorter than the o Ombo 18-55 first mentioned period of time, the closed end being OTHER REFERENCES heated to a temperature 2 to 10 F. greater than Pages 43 and 44; (1961); Blow Moldmg, Jones et al.,

the remainder of the parison; (c) completely withdrawing the parison from the me- Relnhold b lshlng Corp., New York.

dium and inserting the thus heated parison into a mold which is of larger cross section than the pari- ROBERT WHTTE Primary Exammerson, the parison being inserted so that the closed MORRIS LIEBMAN, ALEXANDER BRODMERKEL, end thereof engages the end of the mold; and Examiners. 

1. THE METHOD OF FABRICATING A HOLLOW CONTAINER COMPRISING: (A) IMMERSING A HOLLOW PARISON OF THERMOPLASTIC RESIN OF SUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORM WALL THICKNESS AND CLOSED AT ONE END INTO A LIQUID HEATED MEDIUM FOR A PREDETERMINED PERIOD OF TIME; (B) PARTIALLY WITHDRAWING SAID PARISON FROM THE MEDIUM SO THAT THE REGION OF THE PARSION ADJACENT THE CLOSED END THEREOF REMAINS SUBMERTED, AND RETAINING THE PARISON IN THE THUS PARTIALLY WITHDRAWN POSITION FOR A SECOND PERIOD OF TIME SHORTER THAN THE FIRST MENTIONED PERIOD JOF TIME, THE CLOSED END BEING 